A Blueprint For European Union Economic Integration Through Social Economy Innovation

Romania, a member of the European Union (EU) since 2007, has been riding the high-hopes-low-expectations EU integration carousel for over a decade and a half. Its resilient, dwindling and aging population has seen its share of shattered dreams, stemmed from the 40-year failed communist social experiment, and continuing into the ill-fated socio economic reforms of the 90s. While joining the EU marketplace seemed initially the right answer to all the economic worries, the difficulty in implementing and adapting to the new socio-economic structures, and laws, created new headwinds for the already fragile Romanian business space. With an overstretched public sector marred by corruption, with private sector battered by the headwinds of countless fiscal reforms, and a frail voluntary sector, the country is still trying to find its economic footing, and a master plan for socio-economic development is needed more than ever. We posit that a profit-making, commercial structures, such as the social enterprise, which has its primary goal to achieve certain social objectives, has the potential to make a strong business, societal, and environmental impact. Our qualitative, interventionist research methodology aims to bring more arguments in favor of adding social entrepreneurship skills such as creative bricolage, as well as soft skills like critical thinking and empathy to the business toolkit competencies, in order to improve the business paradigm. Our attempts to measure the social enterprise model impact on rural economies are intended to work towards creating a blueprint for sustainable, long term economic growth, and ease the integration within the EU business model.